Calories vs. Sodium

mbrown0567

I'm new entering my Food Diary and after a week, the yellow light bulb turned on and I realized this past week's average Net Calories is 807. My problem is I have to watch and monitor my sodium as I have heart failure, stage 3, and am not allowed to eat over 2,000 mg of sodium. How can one eat more calories without consuming a lot of sodium? Thanks for any suggestions.

arobey11

I average about 1480 calories a day and tend to stay well under 2,000 mg of sodium. If you'd like to add me as a friend and peruse my diary feel free!

Spliner1969

Roasted, unsalted nuts? That's a tough question, most foods have a little sodium in them. I do good just to stay under 6000mg sodium each day, I can't imaging having to stay under 2000. If you're in need of protein, here's a list of high protein foods with low or no sodium:

http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-000078000000123000000.html

Grammytryingtogetfit

Here is a link I just looked up on google......https://healthfinder.gov/HealthTopics/Category/health-conditions-and-diseases/heart-health/low-sodium-foods-shopping-list

Hope this helps you out!!!

Gallowmere1984

You'd actually be hard pressed to find any food in it's natural state that has a bad calorie to sodium ratio.

Oats- 48g, 190 kcals, 0mg sodium
Ground beef- 113g, 170 kcals, 85mg sodium
Most fruits: virtually sodium free
Most vegetables: a 1:20 sodium to potassium or better ratio
Most fresh or frozen fish: same as above
Chicken breast: 113g, 110-120 kcals, 65-85 mg sodium

We can do this all day.

GottaBurnEmAll

Are you eating a lot of prepared foods? If you buy fresh foods and prepare them yourself, it should be fairly easy to keep your sodium levels low.

cwolfman13

mbrown0567 wrote: »

I'm new entering my Food Diary and after a week, the yellow light bulb turned on and I realized this past week's average Net Calories is 807. My problem is I have to watch and monitor my sodium as I have heart failure, stage 3, and am not allowed to eat over 2,000 mg of sodium. How can one eat more calories without consuming a lot of sodium? Thanks for any suggestions.

more whole foods and meals prepared from scratch, whole ingredients...fewer processed foods...less eating out.

mbrown0567

Thanks everyone for the insights/suggestions.

crackpotbaby

Your heart failure nurse and care team might have some meal plan ideas or substitution sheets regarding low sodium options.

Other than that, fresh fruit and veg and meat is usually the go.

mrmarkharding

I am on low sodium for my blood pressure. I stay under 1500 a day without a problem. It takes work, you have to stay away from all processed food. After my stroke, I gave up smoking ans salt. I missed salt more than smoking. It took a year, but after that I could not stand salty food. I would spend 2 -3 hours food shopping reading all the labels in the grocery store. It was a waste of time because you will realize that manufactures make food for the masses. If it taste good it must either have sodium, or alot of fat in it. So now I only buy no salt added foods , which you see more and more of. Out side of that, I cook everything from scratch. As other people have said, Meat, poultry, fish, vegetables, and fruit. By a book on the dash diet, that will give you plenty of recipes to make that are low in sodium.

ogtmama

Unfortunately yes, the answer is less prepared foods and yes, that includes almost all restaurants BUT the good news is that your palate will adjust quite quickly to having less salt. I know I find restaurant food super salty now...it won't always seem so bland.

cmtigger

I'm working on reducing my sodium (HBP and kidney stones) and not having issues with calories. I do have to cook a lot of my own food. Dinner tonight was some leftover shredded beef from last night, white rice I cooked, cilantro, and 2/3 a serving of "lower" sodium teriyaki sauce. More vegetables would not have upped the sodium more than a few milligrams if I used plain frozen or fresh.
My big issue is that I need to eat high calcium too. But this could help bump up calories for you- whole milk is low, and I noticed that fresh mozzarellas and regular Swiss tend to be lower sodium for cheeses- but always double check the label.

Machka9

mbrown0567 wrote: »

I'm new entering my Food Diary and after a week, the yellow light bulb turned on and I realized this past week's average Net Calories is 807. My problem is I have to watch and monitor my sodium as I have heart failure, stage 3, and am not allowed to eat over 2,000 mg of sodium. How can one eat more calories without consuming a lot of sodium? Thanks for any suggestions.

I have trouble consuming enough sodium in my day.

Fruit and vegetables don't have much in the way of sodium. Neither do things like rice, chicken, eggs, and yogurt. Some of those things do have a bit of sodium, but not much.

ejbronte

I also watch my sodium, and learned to cook without salt several years ago, when my parents both had to go on low-sodium diets. You do have to do a lot of cooking, bypassing a lot of packaged and canned food. It's one of the reasons I'm playing with making my own breads lately. Nice salt substitutes are all sorts of spices; acids/citrus; wine as a deglazer or cooking ingredient. Most days, I can keep under 1,000 mg. After a while, you get used to the routine of controlling your meals. It feels good!